Telling a Single Story

Article

Telling a Single Story

ID # 3708

When we think of Spain we often think of a land full of sunshine and olive-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed Spaniards speaking beautiful Spanish, or what some would call Castellano, eating Paella while drinking Sangria followed by an afternoon bullfight and an evening full of flamenco. The reality is that not all Spaniards have dark hair and dark eyes, and not all Spaniards speak with the same accent. There is diversity in every region of the country even though people often try to stereotype and fit the entire country into one specific box.

One main stereotype of Spain is that it is a land that glorifies and supports bullfighting. This is true in some parts of Spain for some Spaniards, but not all. In Sevilla, a city in the southern Andalusia region, bullfighting is very popular, mainly during April Fair. However, in northern regions of Spain, in cities like Barcelona, bullfighting is banned due to overwhelming public outcry over animal cruelty. The following BBC article explains the dwindling support for Bullfights in the Catalonia region and the increasing awareness of animal rights.

To read the article mentioned above, click here.

Another main stereotype about Spain is how much of an influence Catholicism has on everyday life. It is true that there is a very large number of Catholics in Spain but people often neglect the other religious history Spain has. Spain has a large amount of Muslim and Jewish influence as you can see in the video below. It wasn’t until I went to Spain and visited cities populated by a large number of Moroccans and visited cathedrals that were once mosques that I started to understand the diverse and intertwined religious relationships in the country.

 

It’s important that when we stereotype countries to remember that those stereotypes only show one side of the story. We must remember that there are different regions with different foods, accents, and forms of entertainment. The reality is that each person, each city, each town has its own unique culture, its own unique way of doing things and all of that together is what makes Spanish culture.

To learn more about the danger of a single story, feel free to watch the video below in which novelist Chimamanda Adichie discusses how a single story can lead to serious misunderstanding.

Click here to watch Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk.

The featured photo is one I took at the Alhambra, a palace built in the 14th century by Berber rulers, in Granada, Andalusia, Spain.